entertainment – Page 232 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Popular Android Package Uses Just XOR — and That’s Not the Worst Part

siddesu writes A popular ‘encryption’ package for Android that even charges a yearly subscription fee of $8, actually does nothing more than give false sense of security to its users. Not only is the app using a worthless encryption method, it also uses weak keys and ‘encrypts’ only a small portion of the files. One wonders how much snake oil flows through the app stores, from ‘battery savers’ to ‘antivirus’. What is the most worthless app purchase you made? Did you ask for a refund? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Popular Android Package Uses Just XOR — and That’s Not the Worst Part

The Most Highly Voted Requests In Windows 10 Feedback Pool

jones_supa writes: Some of you have probably used the Feedback app of Windows 10 Technical Preview, which has enabled us to submit feature requests and bug reports directly to Microsoft in order to improve the operating system as the company approaches the final release. While Microsoft tries to make some of the requests available, it also depends on the number of votes that each submission gets. Softpedia takes a look at the top 5 requests right now: make Feedback app available in final Windows, too; improve network connections management; allow task view drag windows between desktops; give Cortana the ability to open programs; and bring back resize options for Start Menu. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Most Highly Voted Requests In Windows 10 Feedback Pool

Intel Launches SSD 750 Series Consumer NVMe PCI Express SSD At Under $1 Per GiB

MojoKid writes Today, Intel took the wraps off new NVMe PCI Express Solid State Drives, which are the first products with these high speed interfaces, that the company has launched specifically for the enthusiast computing and workstation market. Historically, Intel’s PCI Express-based offerings, like the SSD DC P3700 Series, have been targeted for datacenter or enterprise applications, with price tags to match. However, the Intel SSD 750 Series PCI Express SSD, though based on the same custom NVMe controller technology as the company’s expensive P3700 drive, will drop in at less than a dollar per GiB, while offering performance almost on par with its enterprise-class sibling. Available in 400GB and 1.2TB capacities, the Intel SSD 750 is able to hit peak read and write bandwidth numbers of 2.4GB/sec and 1.2GB/sec, respectively. In the benchmarks, it takes many of the top PCIe SSD cards to task easily and at $389 for a 400GB model, you won’t have to sell an organ to afford one. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel Launches SSD 750 Series Consumer NVMe PCI Express SSD At Under $1 Per GiB

California Has Become the First State To Get Over 5% of Its Power From Solar

Lucas123 writes: While the rest of the nation’s solar power generation hovers around 1%, California clocked in with a record 5% of power coming from utility-grade (1MW or more) solar power sources, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group and the Energy Information Administration. That’s three times the next closest state, Arizona. At the same time, 22 states have yet to deploy even one utility-grade solar power plant, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. Meanwhile, the rest of the world saw a 14% uptick in solar power installations in 2014 for a total of 54.5GW of capacity, and that figure is expected to grow even faster in 2015. While China still leads the world in new solar capacity, Japan and the U.S. come in as a close second and third, respectively. In the U.S. distributed solar and utility-grade solar installations are soaring as the solar investment tax credit (ITC) is set to expire next year. The U.S. is expected to deploy 8.5GW of new solar capacity in 2015, according to Mercom Capital Group. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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California Has Become the First State To Get Over 5% of Its Power From Solar

First look at Project Spartan, Microsoft’s take on the modern browser

When announcing that a Windows 10 Preview with the new Project Spartan browser was available , Microsoft made clear that the browser ain’t done yet. What we have now is an early iteration of the company’s take on a legacy-free forward-looking browser—a browser that’s going to ditch the venerable Internet Explorer name. Superficially, everything about the browser is new. Its interface takes cues from all the competition: tabs on top, in the title bar, the address bar inside each tab. The look is simple and unadorned; monochrome line-art for icons, rectangular tabs, and a flat look—the address bar, for example, doesn’t live in a recessed pit (as it does in Chrome) and is integral with the toolbar (unlike Internet Explorer). The design concept works well for me, though I doubt this will be universal. As is so often the case on Windows, it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the operating system. While parts of Windows 10 have a similar appearance—most notably the Settings app—Windows overall remains an inconsistent mish-mash of looks and feels, to its detriment. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

How Malvertising Abuses Real-Time Bidding On Ad Networks

msm1267 writes Dark corners of the Internet harbor trouble. They’re supposed to. But what about when Yahoo, CNN.com, TMZ and other busy destination sites heave disaster upon visitors? That’s the challenge posed by malvertising, the latest hacker Golden Goose used in cybercrime operations and even in some targeted attacks. Hackers are thriving in this arena because they have found an unwittingly complicit partner in the sundry ad networks to move malicious ads through legitimate processes. Adding gasoline to the raging fire is the abuse of real-time ad bidding, a revolution in the way online ads are sold. RTB enables better ad targeting for advertisers and less unsold inventory for publishers. Hackers can also hitch a ride with RTB and target malicious ads on any site they wish, much the way a legitimate advertiser would use the same system. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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How Malvertising Abuses Real-Time Bidding On Ad Networks

Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Battlefield Blood Loss

MTorrice writes: A foam composed of a polymer derived from crustacean shells may prevent more soldiers from falling victim to the most prolific killer on the battlefield: blood loss. Pressure is one of the best tools that medics have to fight bleeding, but they can’t use it on severe wounds near organs. Here, compression could do more harm than good. First responders have no way to effectively dam blood flows from these non-compressible injuries, which account for the majority of hemorrhagic deaths. The new foam could help stop bleeding in these types of injuries. It relies on chitosan, a biopolymer that comes from processed crustacean shells. By modifying the chitosan, the developers gave the material the ability to anchor blood cells into gel-like networks, essentially forming blood clots. The researchers dispersed the modified chitosan in water to create a fluid they could spray directly onto noncompressible wounds. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Battlefield Blood Loss

Mini-review: Intel’s powered-up Core i7 Broadwell mini PC

Earlier this week, Intel sent us its latest variation of its growing line of NUC mini PCs. This is Intel’s first NUC to ship with one of its top-end Core i7 chips inside—it’s not the fastest desktop like this you can buy (that’s probably still Gigabyte’s quad-core Haswell Brix Pro), but it’s the fastest one you can get with Intel’s solid driver support and three-year warranty. If you read our review of the Core i5 Broadwell NUC, you already know a lot of what there is to know about this box. The primary difference is the faster CPU and GPU and an extra $100 or so—Intel says the street price should be around $500, compared to the $400-ish that the i5 version costs. We took the newest NUC and ran it through our standard tests to get an idea of how it stacks up. If you spend the extra money, here’s what you get. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Mini-review: Intel’s powered-up Core i7 Broadwell mini PC

Graphene Light Bulbs Coming To Stores Soon

An anonymous reader writes: A light bulb made from graphene — said by its UK developers to be the first commercially viable consumer product using the super-strong carbon — is to go on sale later this year. The dimmable LED bulb with a graphene-coated filament was designed at Manchester University, where the material was discovered in 2004. It is said to cut energy use by 10% and last longer owing to its conductivity. It is expected to be priced lower than current LED bulbs, which cost about £15 (~$22) each. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Measuring How Much "Standby Mode" Electricity For Game Consoles Will Cost You

An anonymous reader writes: Modern game consoles have a “standby” mode, which you can use if you want the console to instantly turn on while not drawing full power the whole time it’s idle. But manufacturers are vague about how much power it takes to keep the consoles in this standby state. After a recent press release claiming $250 million worth of electricity was used to power Xbox Ones in standby mode in the past year, Ars Technica decided to run some tests to figure out exactly how much power is being drawn. Their conclusions: the PS4 draws about 10 Watts, $10-11 in extra electricity charges annually. The Xbox One draws 12.9W, costing users $13-$14 in extra electricity charges annually. The Wii U draws 13.3W, costing users $14-$15 in extra electricity charges annually. These aren’t trivial amounts, but they’re a lot less than simply leaving the console running and shutting off the TV when you aren’t using it: “Leaving your PS4 sitting on the menu like this all year would waste over $142 in electricity costs.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Measuring How Much "Standby Mode" Electricity For Game Consoles Will Cost You